Inscription:
In memory of Sarah wife of Amos C Slosson who died June 22,1841,in the 51st year of her age
Why lonely friend induldge that tear,Why trembling view my dark abode,Though you with me must moulder here,Yet faith can wing my soul to God

Her death may have been June 30, 1679; but I've listed it as it is on the Rhode Island Cemetery Database.

Her maiden name may have been Cooke as Thomas Cooke was supposed to have been Giles Slocum's brother-in-law. "When Cooke wrote his will in 1674, he devised to his grandson John Cooke, land that was bounded on one side by Brother Giles Slocum."

Wife of Hugh H. Spafford, whom she married on Oct. 18, 1911, in Glens Falls, Warren, NY, and with whom she had three known children (for names, please see husband's memorial).
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OBITUARY: Mrs. Ethel Spafford
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Mrs. Ethel L. Spafford of 19 Wilson Ave., Glens Falls, died yesterday morning in her home.
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Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. Fred Thomson, of the home address; two sons, Donald, of the Saratoga Road, and Hiram, of North Cladendon, Vt.; a sister, Mrs. F. L. Munson, of Scarsdale, and five grandchildren.
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A funeral service will be conducted Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the Potter ft Son Funeral Home, 13 Warren St., Glens Falls, by the Rev. Walter Benedict, pastor of Christ Church Methodist. Burial will be in Spafford Cemetery, North Clarendon.
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Friends may call at the funeral home from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.
[Source: The Saratogian, Monday, Nov. 7, 1955]

Lola Fae Helton Bond Harlan, age 76, of Iberia, passed away on Tuesday, August 26, 2014, at Maries Manor in Vienna. She was born in Miller County on August 20, 1938, daughter of the late Louie and Clara Opal (Hannah) Helton. On October 6, 1990, near Iberia, Lola married Parker Harlan, who survives at the home.

Lola worked at Brown Shoe Factory in Dixon for 25 years. She was a member of Mason Ridge Community Church and Mt. Gilead Church.

She was preceded in death by one son, Larry Bond; two great-grandsons, Chance and Chase Bond; and her parents, Louie and Opal Helton.

Visitation will be from 10 to 11 a.m., with services immediately following at 11 a.m., on Friday, August 29, at Fancher-Rekus Funeral Home in Iberia. Interment will be in Union Cemetery near Iberia. Memorial contributions are suggested to the Lola Harlan Memorial Fund.

SIR JOHN GATES (1504-1553) was an English courtier and soldier, holding influential household positions in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. One of the Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber under Edward VI, he became a follower of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and was a principal participant in the attempt to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne. For this he was executed for high treason under Queen Mary I.

Originating from an ancient Essex gentry family going back to King Edward III, john gates had a thorough training as a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn. he married Mary Denny, sister of Sir Anthony Denny, and served Queen Catherine Parr from 1543-1545. he was a member of King Henry VIII's Privy Chamber, first as a groom, from 1542. From 1546 he was in charge, with his brother-in-law, of the King's personal finances and his "dry stamp", a substitute, to the King's convenience for Henry's "sign manual" or personal signature. These positions of trust implied considerable influence.

Under King Edward VI, Gates became a Chief Gentleman of the Privy Chamber after the fall of Protector Somerset in the autumn of 1549. he rose to Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household on 8 April 1551; a few days later he was admitted to the privy Council under the leadership of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. In these positions Gates was a significant channel of communications between the Duke and the young King and was granted custody of the King's signet in December 1551. In July 1552 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Gates was also a soldier and as High Sheriff of Essex in 1550 went several times into Essex to arrest rioters and carry through the official destruction of "superstitious altars". He was also Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners (the royal guard) from April 1551.

John Gates was deeply involved in the succession crisis of 1553, and lady Jane Grey claimed that he had confessed to have been the first to have induced King Edward to name her his successor. Notwithstanding Gates' commitment to Edward's will, his putative ole in its conception has been questioned by Narasingha P. Sil on the grounds that he probably was not as close to the young King as traditionally believed. On 14 July 1553, Gates led the troops of the royal household to East Anglia in the campaign against Mary Tudor. He was arrested with Northumberland at Cambridge and tried at Westminster Hall on 19 August 1553. On 22 August 1553, he took the Catholic communion, recanting his Protestant faith in a ceremony at St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower precincts. Immediately afterwards he was executed together with the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Thomas Palmer on Tower Hill. According to an eyewitness account the following scene had taken place shortly before at the Lieutenant of the Tower's garden gate:

"Sir John," sayeth the duke, "God have mercy upon us, for this day shall end both our lives. And I pray you forgive me whatsoever I have offended; and I forgive you with all my heart, although you and your counsel was a great occasion hereof." "Well, my lord," sayeth Sir John Gates, "I forgive you as I would be forgiven; and yet you and your authority was the only original cause of all together; but the Lord pardon you, and I pray you forgive me." So, either making obeisance to each other, the duke proceeded towards the scaffold.

Isabella of Asturias (1470?1498) was the Queen Consort of Portugal and the eldest daughter and heiress presumptive of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile.

In 1490 Isabella married Afonso, Infante of Portugal, the heir of John II of Portugal, who died afterwards in a hunting accident in 1495. She then in 1497 married King Manuel I of Portugal (who was Afonso's uncle and John II's successor to that throne). At the 1497 death of her only brother, John, she became Princess of Asturias as she was recognized as the heir of Castilian kingdom. In 1498 while giving birth to Miguel da Paz, heir to the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, she died (Miguel died two years later). Manuel's chance to become king-consort of Spain vanished with Isabella's death, and main hope of uniting all Iberian kingdoms vanished at Miguel's death.

So, after 1500, Joanna of Castile (Isabella's next sister and Miguel's aunt) became the heiress of Spain, eventually bringing those kingdoms to the Habsburgs. However, the Iberian Union took place about a hundred years later, in 1580, when the Habsburg king, Philip II of Spain, grandson of Joan the Mad and of Manuel of Portugal, acquired Portugal and its dominions.

Isabella's sister, Maria of Aragon, then married Isabella's widowed husband and gave birth to eight children.

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Henry III (October 4, 1379?1406), sometimes known as Henry the Sufferer or Henry the Infirm (Spanish: Enrique el Doliente) was the son of John I and succeeded him as King of Castile and LeÛn in 1390.

Henry was born in Burgos, the capital of Castile. Before becoming king, he was known by the title Prince of Asturias, designating him as the heir apparent. After succeeding to the throne at 11, Henry took power at 14. He was able to pacify the nobility and restore royal power. During his reign, the Castilian fleet won several victories against the English; Henry sent a naval fleet in 1400 that destroyed TÈtouan in North Africa, a pirate base. In 1402, Henry began the colonization of the Canary Islands, sending French explorer Jean de BÈthencourt. He also sent envoys to Timur.

In 1388, Henry married Katherine of Lancaster (Catalina de Lancaster; 1372?1418), the daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Gaunt's second wife, Constance of Castile, who was the elder daughter of Pedro of Castile. This ended a dynastic conflict and solidified the House of Trastamara. Henry and Catherine's son became John II of Castile, who succeeded Henry when he died in Toledo, Catherine acting as Regent of Castile because John II was then underage.

Charles, Prince of Viana, (1421 - 1461), sometimes called Charles IV, king of Navarre, was the son of John, afterwards king of Aragon, by his marriage with Blanche, daughter and heiress of Charles, king of Navarre. Both his grandfather Charles and his mother, who ruled over Navarre from 1425 to 1441, had bequeathed this kingdom to Charles, whose right had also been recognized by the Cortes; but when Blanche died in 1441 her husband John seized the government to the exclusion of his son. The Prince of Viane was married in Olite (Navarre) on September 30 1439, taking as his wife the Flemish Princess Agnes, the daughter of Adolph I, Duke of Cleves and Mary of Burgundy sister of Philip the Good. Princess Agnes died, childless, on April 6, 1448, eight years after her marriage to Charles.

The ill-feeling between father and son was increased when in 1447 John took for his second wife Joanna (Juana) Enriquez, a Castilian noblewoman (of a bastard cadet line from Castilian kings), who soon bore him a son, afterwards Ferdinand V, king of Spain, and who regarded her stepson as an interloper. When Joanna began to interfere in the internal affairs of Navarre, civil war broke out, and in 1452 Charles, although aided by John II, king of Castile, was defeated and taken prisoner. Released upon promising not to take the kingly title until after his father's death, the prince, again unsuccessful in an appeal to arms, took refuge in Naples with Alphonso V, king of Aragon, Naples and Sicily. In 1458 Alphonso died and John became king of Aragon, while Charles was offered the crowns of Naples and Sicily. He declined these proposals, and having been reconciled with his father returned to Navarre in 1459. Aspiring to marry a Castilian princess, he was then thrown into prison by his father, and the Catalans rose in his favor. This insurrection soon became general and John was obliged to yield. He released his son, and recognized him as perpetual governor of Catalonia, and heir to the kingdom.

Soon afterwards, however, on 23 September 1461, the prince died at Barcelona, not without a suspicion that he had been poisoned by his stepmother. He was promised to marry Catherine of Portugal (daughter of Portuguese King Edward I) when he died.

Charles was a cultured and amiable prince, fond of music and literature. He translated Aristotle's Ethics into Spanish, a work first published at Saragossa in 1509, and wrote a chronicle of the kings of Navarre, Cronica de los reyes de Navarra.

She was the third and youngest daughter of John II of AragÛn and queen Blanche II of Navarre.

She was born February 2, 1425, and was acclaimed by the cortes in Pamplona, August 9, 1427, being the legitimate heir of Charles, Prince of Viana, and Blanche.

She married Gaston IV, count of Foix, and had the following issue with him:

Gaston (1444-1470), he married Princess Magdalena of Valois of France in 1462 and their children Francis and Catherine both succeeded to Navarre in turn upon the death of their grandmother Eleanor, married Marie d'OrlÈans
John(1450-1500), viscount of Narbonne
Peter(1449-1490), cardinal and bishop of Arles
James(1455-1500), count of Cortes, married Catherine of Beaumont
Mary(1452-1497), married William VIII, marquess of Montferrat
Joan(1454-1476), married John V, count of Armagnac
Margaret(1458-1486), married Francis II, duke of Brittany
Catherine (b.1455), married Gaston II de Foix, Count of Candale and Benauges
Isabella b.1462, married Guy of Pons
Leonor
Ana

Ferdinand was the son of John II of Aragon by his second wife, the Aragonese noblewoman Juana Enriquez. He married Infanta Isabella, the half-sister and heiress of Henry IV of Castile, on October 19, 1469 in OcaÒa and became Ferdinand V of Castile when Isabella succeeded her brother as Queen of Castile in 1474. The two young monarchs were initially obliged to fight a civil war against Juana, princess of Castile (also known as Juana la Beltraneja), the purported daughter of Henry IV, but were ultimately successful. When Ferdinand succeeded his father as King of Aragon in 1479, the Crown of Castile and the various territories of the Crown of Aragon were united in a personal union creating for the first time since the 8th century a single political unit which might be called Spain, although the various territories were not properly administered as a single unit until the 18th century.

The first decades of Ferdinand and Isabella's joint rule were taken up with the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada, the last Muslim enclave in the Iberian peninsula, which was completed by 1492. In that same year, the Jews were expelled from both Castile and Aragon, and Christopher Columbus was sent by the couple on his expedition which would ultimately discover the New World. By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the extra-European world was split between the crowns of Portugal and Castile by a north-south line through the Atlantic Ocean.

The latter part of Ferdinand's life was largely taken up with disputes over control of Italy with successive Kings of France, the so-called Italian Wars. In 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and expelled Ferdinand's cousin, Alfonso II, from the throne of Naples. Ferdinand allied with various Italian princes and with Emperor Maximilian I, to expel the French by 1496 and install Alfonso's son, Ferdinand, on the Neapolitan throne. In 1501, following the death of Ferdinand II of Naples and his succession by his uncle Frederick, Ferdinand of Aragon signed an agreement with Charles VIII's successor, Louis XII, who had just successfully asserted his claims to the Duchy of Milan, to partition Naples between them, with Campania and the Abruzzi, including Naples itself, going to the French and Ferdinand taking Apulia and Calabria. The agreement soon fell apart, and over the next several years, Ferdinand's great general Gonzalo Fern·ndez de CÛrdoba conquered Naples from the French, having succeeded by 1504. Another less famous "conquest" took place in 1503, when Andreas Paleologus, de jure Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, left Ferdinand and Isabella as heirs to the empire, thus Ferdinand became de jure Roman Emperor.

After Isabella's death, her kingdom went to her daughter Joanna. Ferdinand served as the latter's regent during her absence in the Netherlands, ruled by her husband Archduke Philip. Ferdinand attempted to retain the regency permanently, but was rebuffed by the Castilian nobility and replaced with Joanna's husband, who became Philip I of Castile. After Philip's death in 1506, with Joanna mentally unstable, and her and Philip's son Charles of Ghent was only six years old, Ferdinand resumed the regency, ruling through Francisco Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros, the Chancellor of the Kingdom.

In 1508, war resumed in Italy, this time against Venice, which all the other powers on the peninsula, including Louis XII, Ferdinand, Maximilian, and Pope Julius II joined together against as the League of Cambrai. Although the French were victorious against Venice at the Battle of Agnadello, the League soon fell apart, as both the Pope and Ferdinand became suspicious of French intentions. Instead, the Holy League was formed, in which now all the powers joined together against France.

In November 1511 Ferdinand and his son-in-law Henry VIII of England signed the Treaty of Westminster, pledging mutual aid between the two against France. Earlier that year, Ferdinand had conquered the southern half of the Kingdom of Navarre, which was ruled by a French nobleman, and annexed it to Spain. At this point Ferdinand remarried with the much younger Germaine of Foix (1490?1538), a grand-daughter of Queen Leonor of Navarre, to reinforce his claim to the kingdom. The Holy League was generally successful in Italy, as well, driving the French from Milan, which was restored to its Sforza dukes by the peace treaty in 1513. The French were successful in reconquering Milan two years later, however.

Ferdinand died in 1516 in Madrigalejo, C·ceres, Extremadura. He had made Spain the most powerful country in Europe. The succession of his grandson Charles, who would inherit not only the Spanish lands of his maternal grandparents, but the Habsburg and Burgundian lands of his paternal family, would make his heirs the most powerful rulers on the continent. Charles succeeded him in the Aragonese lands, and was also granted the Castilian crown jointly with his insane mother, bringing about at long last the unification of the Spanish thrones under one head.

Her youngest sister was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. In 1496 at Lille, Joanna was married to the archduke Philip the Handsome, son of the German King Maximilian I, and at Ghent in February 1500, she gave birth to future emperor Charles V.

The death of her only brother John, Prince of Asturias, of her eldest sister Isabella of Asturias, queen of Portugal, and then of the latter's infant son Miguel, Prince of Asturias, made Joanna the heiress of the Spanish kingdoms, and in 1502 the cortes of Castile and of Aragon recognized her and her husband as their future sovereigns, already Princess and Prince of Asturias.

Joanna was said to pine day and night for her husband while he was overseas, and when she eventually joined Philip in Flanders, her passionate jealousy and constant suspicion of him made her notorious, if not necessarily beloved, in the local court.

Her mother's death left Joanna Queen of Castile in November of 1504. She and Philip set sail from Flanders to Spain, where he would assume the kingship as her husband. Their ships were wrecked on the English coast and the couple became guests of Henry VII at Windsor Castle. After they continued their trip to Spain, they landed at CoruÒa in 1506 and started their trip south for the coronation. Ferdinand, her father, claimed that Joanna was being kept prisoner by Philip and that he was speaking for her, and therefore he should be made co-regent with her. This conflict threatened to lead to civil war. However, Philip unexpectedly died due to typhus fever in Burgos in September 1506. Joanna became completely deranged ? it was almost impossible to get her away from the corpse of her husband.

F.Pradilla Ortiz: Juana la Loca Depicts Queen Joanna in vigil over her husband's coffinFerdinand's way to the regency was clear. Ferdinand convinced Joanna to grant him co-regency, and, in turn, kept her isolated in the castle of Tordesillas. After his death in 1516, her son Charles assumed the regency and was proclaimed co-king. Joanna was kept prisoner at Tordesillas, however, with the revolt of the comuneros she had a chance to resume her sole sovereignty but failed to take it. When Charles succeeded in quelling the uprising, Joanna was locked up for good in a windowless room in the castle of Tordesillas for the rest of her life. She died on Good Friday, April 12, 1555.

Joanna was the last of the original Spanish royals; after her, all royalty on the Spanish throne was from houses that had come from abroad - though most of the future monarchs also were born in Spain. Most historians believe she suffered from schizophrenia and she was kept locked away and imprisoned. Needed to legitimize the claims of her father and son to the throne, Joanna only nominally remained queen of Castile until her death. Many historians, not understanding the nature and severity of a disease like schizophrenia, have made her story into an archtypal victim parable, without adequately understanding the dangers which her condition posed to the governance of Castile.

She is entombed in the Capilla Real of Granada, alongside her parents, her husband, and her nephew Miguel.

In 1406, upon the death of his elder brother King Henry III of Castile, Ferdinand declined the Castilian crown and instead, with Henry's widow Catherine, became coregent during the minority of his nephew John II of Castile. In this capacity he distinguished himself by his prudent administration of domestic affairs.

After Ferdinand's maternal uncle, Martin I of Aragon (as Martin II, also King of Sicily) died without surviving issue, Ferdinand was chosen king in 1412 to succeed him by the Pact of Caspe.

The most notabe accomplishment of his brief reign was his agreement in 1416 to depose the Antipope Benedict XIII, thereby helping to end the Great Schism, which had divided the Western Church for nearly 40 years.

In 1455 she married Henry IV of Castile and six years later had a daughter named also Joan, called "La Beltraneja" because of rumours that she was in fact daughter of Don Beltran de la Cureva. Henry sent Joan to live in Coca at the castle of Henry's supporter, bishop Fonseca. She fell in love with Bishop Fonseca's nephew and was expecting his child. Enrique declared their marriage not and never legal. Joan wore scandalous dresses that were low cut and her behavior was also scandalous. She later went to the convent of San Fransico in Segovia. She died in Madrid on June 13, 1475.

Jo„o II, King of Portugal KG (Portuguese pron. IPA [?u'?~u]; English: John II), the Perfect Prince (Port. o PrÌncipe Perfeito), fourteenth king of Portugal and Algarves was born in Lisbon in March 3, 1455 and died in Alvor in October 25, 1495. He was the son of king Afonso V of Portugal by his wife, Isabel of Coimbra, princess of Portugal. Jo„o II succeeded his father in 1477 when the king retired to a monastery and became king in 1481.

As a prince, Jo„o II accompanied his father in the campaigns in northern Africa and was made a knight by him after the victory in Arzila in 1471. In 1473 he married Leonor of Viseu, Princess of Portugal and his first cousin.

Even at a young age, he was not popular among the peers of the kingdom since he was immune to external influence and appeared to despise intrigue. The nobles (including particularly Fernando II, the Duke of Braganza) were afraid of his future policies as king. Events proved them right.

After the official accession to the throne in 1481, Jo„o II took a series of measures to curtail the overgrown power of his aristocracy and to concentrate power on himself. Immediately, the nobles started to conspire; Jo„o II did nothing but observe. Letters of complaint and pleas to intervene were exchanged between the Duke of Braganza and Queen Isabella I of Castile. In 1483, this correspondence was intercepted by royal spies. The House of Braganza was outlawed, their lands confiscated and the duke executed in …vora.

In the following year, the Duke of Viseu, his cousin and brother-in-law was summoned to the palace and stabbed to death by the king himself for suspicion of a new conspiracy. Many other people were executed, murdered or exiled to Castile including the bishop of Evora who was poisoned in prison.

The king is reported to have said, concerning the rebellious nobles: I'm the lord of lords, not the server of servants. After these events, no one in the country dared to defy the king. Jo„o II was free to govern as he pleased without any other conspiracies during his reign.

Jo„o II then restored the policies of Atlantic exploration, reviving the work of his great-uncle, Prince Henry the Navigator. The Portuguese explorations were his main priority in government, pushing south the known coastal Africa with the purpose of discovering the maritime route to India. During his reign, the following was achieved:

1484 ? Diogo C„o discovered the Congo River
1488 - Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope
1493 ? Alvaro Caminha started the settlement of the S„o TomÈ and PrÌncipe islands
Land expeditions were sent to India and Ethiopia in search of Prester John
The complete record of the Portuguese exploration voyages is unknown. Much was kept in secret due to competition with the neighbours of Castile. The archives of this period were destroyed in the fire after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Modern historians are still debating their true extent, suspecting that Portuguese sailors reached the continent of North America earlier than Christopher Columbus by approximately 1470 and also Brazil by as early as 1480.

Arguments for this are the much more precise calculations on the diameter of the Earth that Portugal held. There was an 80 year old school of navigation and mathematics with the most pre-eminent scientists working in the country. While Columbus thought it would be possible to reach India through the West, Portuguese intelligence knew already the way to be much longer and possibly that there was a continent in the middle. The travels of the mysterious captain Duarte Pacheco Pereira in the central Atlantic west of Cape Verde probably are more important than traditional history states.

John II of PortugalWhen Columbus applied for Portuguese help, Jo„o II refused him. According to the historical theory of Portuguese preeminence, Columbus was an inexperienced Atlantic captain, chasing an idea the king knew was wrong, wanting to go to a place Jo„o II already knew how to get to: there was no reason to hire him. In 1492, in the service of the Castile and Aragon kingdoms, Columbus discovers the Americas, convinced until his death that he had reached India. However, recent proof concerning documental proof and even noble house insignias support that Columbus may have been a Portuguese spy trying to keep Spain away from the east india trade routes.

With this event, a series of disputes between Portugal and Castile about the ruling of the seas started. Maritime rivalry among them led to the famous Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in June 7, 1494. This treaty, which defined the meridian of Tordesillas, stated that Portugal kept the eastern part of the world, and Castile and Aragon were responsible for the exploration of the western half.

But the dividing of the world was not the main issue between the Iberian kingdoms. Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon had several daughters, but only one feeble male heir - Juan. The oldest daughter, Isabella of Aragon, was married to prince Afonso of Portugal since childhood. Afonso was Jo„o II's only son and beloved by the king. If Juan died without male heir, as was probable, Afonso would be heir not only of Portugal but also of Castile and Aragon. This threat to Castilian and Aragonese independence was very real and the Catholic kings tried every diplomatic trick to dissolve the wedding. Finally, in 1491, Afonso died in mysterious circumstances - a fall from a horse during a ride in the margin of the Tagus river. The influence of the Catholic kings in this accident was never proved but the prince was an excellent rider, his Castilian valet fled never to be seen again and after this, Isabella, the heiress, was no longer married to the enemy. Jo„o tried without success until the end of his life to legitimise George, his bastard son.

John II died without leaving male issue on October 25, 1495. Due to the hatred the Portuguese nobility had for him, the hypothesis of poisoning was never ruled out. He was succeeded by his first cousin Manuel I.

The nickname the Perfect Prince is a late description and refers to NiccolÚ Machiavelli's work The Prince. Jo„o II is considered to have lived his life exactly according to the writer's idea of a perfect prince. To his contemporaries, Jo„o II was known as the Tyrant.

Leonor of Viseu (1458-1525), was a Princess and later Queen of Portugal. She married Prince Joao (John) in 1473. Joao later became King Joao II of Portugal. She founded what became the city of Caldas da Rainha, which is named in her honor, rainha meaning "queen" in Portuguese.

Maria was an Aragonese princess, second wife of Portuguese King Manuel I and because of that queen consort of Portugal from 1500 until her death. She was the third surviving daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.
Her eldest sister Isabella of Asturias was the first wife of Manuel I, but her death in 1498 created a necessity for Manuel to remarry; Maria became the next bride of the Portuguese King, reaffirming dynastical links with the future Spain, that in 1580 lead to a dynastical crisis in Portugal that made Philip II of Spain King of Portugal as Philip I.

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Cardinal of the Kingdom who succeeded his grandnephew King Sebastian (Manuel's great-grandson) as 17th King of Portugal. His death triggered the struggle for the throne of Portugal.

Besides the Pyrenean Kingdom of Navarre, he had extensive lands in Normandy, inherited from his father Count Philip of …vreux, and his mother, Queen Joan II of Navarre, who had received them as compensation for resigning her claims to France, Champagne, and Brie in 1328. Thus, in Northern France, Charles possessed …vreux, Mortain, parts of Vexin, and a portion of Cotentin.

He hoped for a long time for a restoration of his rights to the crown of France (as son of the daughter of King Louis X).

He married Joan of France (1343?1373), daughter of king John II of France.

He was implicated in the assassination (January 8, 1354) of the constable of France, Charles de la Cerda. In reply, King John attacked …vreux and Navarre, but after Charles allied with the Black Prince, the Treaty of Mantes returned the peace, Charles enlarging his possessions. John captured and imprisoned Charles in 1356, but Charles was released after the Battle of Poitiers. During certain stages of the Hundred Years' War, he was allied with the English. He was one of the nobles involved in the repression of the Jacquerie.

In 1361, after the premature death of his second cousin, Duke Philip I of Burgundy, Charles claimed the Duchy of Burgundy by primogeniture. He was the grandson of Margaret of Burgundy, eldest daughter of Duke Robert II of Burgundy (d. 1306). However, the duchy was taken by John II, son of Joan of Burgundy, second daughter of Duke Robert II, who claimed it in proximity of blood.

In 1364, he was defeated by Bertrand du Guesclin, and driven from his Norman lands

Joan was the second child of Afonso, but after the early death of her older brother John she was declared heiress to the throne and given the title of Princess.

From a young age, Joan expressed a desire to become a nun; however, as she was second-in-line to the throne, her father did not allow it. During his military expedition to Tangier in 1471, joan served as Regent of the Portuguese Kingdon. After vehemently refusing several proposals of marriage, Joan joined the Dominican Convent of Jesus in Aveiro in 1475. Her brother had, by then, been given an heir, so the family line was no longer in danger. Still, she was compelled several times to leave the convent and return to the court, before she was finally professed as a nun. She continued to be a great supporter of her brother, John II of Portugal, throughout his reign and her life.

Joan died on May 12, 1490 in Aveiro and was buried in the Convent of Jesus in Aveiro. She was beatified in 1693 by Pope Innocent XII. Until now she hasn't been canonized, but she's known in Portugal as the Princess Saint Joan.

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Duarte I, King of Portugal KG (Viseu, October 31, 1391 - Tomar, September 13, 1438) (pron. IPA [du'a?t(?)]; Edward, in English), the Philosopher or the Eloquent, the 11th king of Portugal and Algarve and second Lord of Ceuta. He was the son of King Jo„o I of Portugal (John I of Portugal) and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, a daughter of John of Gaunt.

As a prince, Edward (Duarte) always followed his father, King Jo„o I, in the affairs of the kingdom. He was knighted in 1415, after the Portuguese captured the city of Ceuta in North Africa, across from Gibraltar. He became king in 1433 when his father died of the plague and he soon showed interest in internal consensus. During his short reign of five years, Duarte called the Cortes (the national assembly) no less than five times to discuss internal affairs and politics. He also followed the politics of his father concerning the maritime exploration of Africa. He encouraged and financed his famous brother, Prince Henry the Navigator who founded a school of maritime navigation at Sagres and who initiated many expeditions. Among these, that of Gil Eanes in 1434 first rounded Cape Bojador on the NW coast of Africa, leading the way for further exploration southward along the African coast.

The colony at Ceuta rapidly became a drain on the Portuguese treasury and it was realised that without the city of Tangier, possession of Ceuta was worthless. When Ceuta was lost to the Portuguese, the camel caravans that were part of the overland trade routes began to use Tangier as their destination. This deprived Ceuta of the materials and goods that made it an attractive market and a vibrant trading locale, and it became an isolated community.

In 1437, his brothers, Henry (Henrique) and Fernando, persuaded Duarte to launch an attack on Morocco in order to get a better African base for future Atlantic exploration. The expedition was not unanimously supported: Pedro, Duke of Coimbra and John, duke of Aveiro were both against the initiative; they preferred to avoid conflict with the king of Morocco. They proved to be right. The resulting attack on Tangier was successful, but at a great cost of men. Duarte's youngest brother, Fernando, was captured, kept as a hostage, and he died later in captivity in Fez. Duarte died soon after the Tangier attack of the plague, like his father and mother (and her mother) before him.

Another less political side of Duarte's personality is related to culture. A reflective and scholarly prince, he wrote the treatises O Leal Conselheiro (The Loyal Counsellor) and Livro Da Ensinanca De Bem Cavalgar Toda Sela (The Art of Riding on Every Saddle) as well as several poems. He was in the process of revising the Portuguese law code when he died.

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Eleanore of Austria, sometimes known also as Leonor of Castile (November 15, 1498 ? February 25, 1558) was born Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Spain, became subsequently in turn queen consort of Portugal (1518?1521) and of France, also duchess of Touraine (1547?1558) as dower. Named Leonor de Austria in Spanish, Leonor(a) in Portuguese and "royne Eleonore" or Alienor in French.

Born in Louvain as the eldest child of Philippe the Handsome, archduke of Austria and duke of Burgundy and of Joanna of Castile, Infanta of Castile and Aragon and later queen of the named countries. Her siblings were: Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, Ferdinand I, also emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Elizabeth queen of Denmark, Maria queen of Hungary and later regent of the Low Countries and Catherine, queen of Portugal.

When she was young, her relatives tried to marry her to the king of England (Henry VII or Henry VIII), the French king (Louis XII or Francois I) or with the Polish king (Sigismund I), but they could not, so they had to lower their intentions, finally marrying her to Portugal, where firstly her nephew the crown prince was the candidate but finally the king, Manuel I of Portugal. They married July 16, 1518. They had two children, the infante Carlos (who died as a child, born February 18, 1520) and the infanta Maria (born June 8, 1521, and who was later one of the richest princesses of Europe). She became a widow on December 13, 1521, when Manuel died of the plague.

Some time later as a widow, by the treaty called "La Paz de las Damas" (The Ladies' Peace) she was married to Francis I of France on July 4, 1530. They had no children.

As the French queen she did not have any political power; however, she was used as a contact between France and the Holy Roman Empire. She was Charles V's favorite sister. She died in 1558 on the return trip from Badajoz, where she tried to make peace with her daughter Maria.

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Isabella di Taranto, born Isabella de Clermont, (c. 1424-1465), Princess of Taranto, was the elder daughter of Tristan di Chiaramonte (Tristan de Clermont-Lodeve), Count of Cupertino, and Catherine of Taranto. She was also the niece and heiress presumptive of childless Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini, prince of Taranto. She was a granddaughter of queen Mary of Enghien (mother of Giovanni and Catherine), who had been queen consort of Naples (Queen of Jerusalem and Sicily) in 1406-14. Thus, she was the heiress presumptive of feudal possessions in Southern Italy.

In 1444 (or 30 May 1445) she married Ferrante di Aragona, then Duke of Calabria (1423-1494), natural son of Alfonso V of Aragon who had recently conquered the Neapolitan kingdom from French Angevins, and thus was the new liege lord of Isabella and her family. Alfonso arranged this marriage in order to give a good future to his favorite bastard son, by giving him his own principality by marriage. Also, Alfonso wanted his loyal people (such as his own son) to have feudal fiefs in his new kingdom, which would happen in the future as soon as Ferdinand and Isabella succeeded in Taranto. The marriage also strengthened the king's grip on the current lords of Taranto.

In 1458 her husband became, by the will of king Alfonso, King in his conquered territories and as such used the title King of Naples and Jerusalem, and Isabella became queen consort. By that point, they had several children of their own, the eldest being the 10-year-old Alphonso.

They no longer wanted to make Taranto their principal holding, but it was still a strong possession, and in 1463 Isabella succeeded her uncle Giovanni Antonio in Taranto. Isabella also inherited the Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Isabella died 30 March in 1465, buried in St.Pietro the Martyr. Her heir was her eldest son, Alphonso, then Duke of Calabria, the future king Alfonso II of Naples and Jerusalem.

Her widower King Ferrante (born 1423, died January 25, 1494) secondly married Infanta Juana of Aragon, his own first cousin, in 1476

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John II of France (French: Jean II de France; April 16, 1319?April 8, 1364), was Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, and Duke of Normandy from 1332, Count of Poitiers from 1344, and Duke of Guyenne from 1345, and King of France from 1350 until his death, as well as Duke of Burgundy from 1361 on. John was a member of the Valois Dynasty and was the son of Philippe VI and Jeanne of Burgundy. John was nicknamed John the Good (Jean le Bon).

John's coronation as king took place in 1350 in the Notre-Dame de Reims. As king, John surrounded himself with poor administrators, preferring to enjoy the good life his wealth as king brought. The men he relied on to administer his kingdom were brutal thieves but eventually King Jean changed.

In the 1356 Battle of Poitiers against Edward, the Black Prince (son of King Edward III of England), Jean suffered a humiliating defeat and was taken as captive back to England. While negotiating a peace accord, he was at first held in the Savoy Palace, then at a variety of locations, including Windsor, Hertford, Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire, and Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire. A local tradition in St Albans is that he was held in a house in that town, at the site of the 15th-century Fleur de Lys inn, before he was moved to Hertford. There is a sign on the inn to that effect, but apparently no evidence to confirm the tradition [1]. Eventually, John was taken to the Tower of London.

As a prisoner of the English, John was granted royal privileges, permitted to travel about, and to enjoy a regal lifestyle. At a time when law and order was breaking down in France and the government was having a hard time raising money for the defense of the realm, his account books during his captivity show that he was purchasing horses, pets and clothes while maintaining an astrologer and a court band.[citation needed]

The 1360 Treaty of BrÈtigny set his ransom at 3,000,000 crowns. In keeping with the honor between himself and King Edward III, and leaving his son Louis of Anjou in English-held Calais as a replacement hostage, John was allowed to return to France to raise his ransom funds.

While King John tried to raise the money, his son Louis, accorded the same royal dignity, easily escaped from the English. An angry King John surrendered himself again to the English, claiming an inability to pay the ransom as the reason. The true motive of John's decision remains murky today, with many pointing to the devastation in France caused by war with England and the Jacquerie peasant uprising as likely candidates. His councillors and nearly the whole nation was critical of the decision, since they had raised the ransom through painstaking sacrifice. However Jean arrived in England in early 1364, looked upon by ordinary citizens and English royalty alike with great admiration. Accordingly, he was held as an honored prisoner in the Savoy Palace but died in London a few months later.

His body was returned to France, where he was interred in the royal chambers at Saint Denis Basilica

Wikipedia Encyclopedia:
John II the Great (June 29, 1397 ? January 20, 1479) was the King of Aragon (1458?1479) and a King of Navarre (1425?1479). He was the son of Ferdinand I and his wife Eleanor of Alburquerque. John is regarded as one of the most memorable and most unscrupulous kings of the 15th century.

In his youth he was one of the infantes (princes) of Aragon who took part in the dissensions of Castile during the minority and reign of John II. Till middle life he was also lieutenant-general in Aragon for his brother and predecessor Alfonso V, whose reign was mainly spent in Italy. In his old age he was engaged in incessant conflicts with his Aragonese and Catalan subjects, with Louis XI of France, and in preparing the way for the marriage of his son Ferdinand with Isabella of Castile which brought about the union of the crowns. His trouble with his subjects were closely connected with the tragic dissension in his own family.

John was first married to Blanche of Navarre of the house of …vreux. By right of Blanche he became king of Navarre, and on her death in 1441 he was left in possession of the kingdom for his lifetime. But a son, Charles, given the title "Prince of Viana" as heir of Navarre, had been born of the marriage. John quickly came to regard his son with jealousy. After his second marriage, to Juana EnrÌquez, this grew into absolute hatred and was encouraged by Juana. John tried to deprive his son of his constitutional right to act as lieutenant-general of Aragon during his father's absence. Charles's cause was taken up by the Aragonese, and the king's attempt to make his second wife lieutenant-general was set aside.

There followed a long conflict, with alternations of success and defeat, ending only with the death of the prince of Viana, perhaps by poison given him by his stepmother, in 1461. The Catalans, who had adopted the cause of Charles and who had grievances of their own, called in a succession of foreign pretenders. King John spent his last years contending with these. He was forced to pawn Roussillon, his possession on the north-east of the Pyrenees, to King Louis XI of France, who refused to part with it.

In his old age John was blinded by cataracts, but recovered his eyesight by the operation of couching conducted by his physician Abiathar Crescas, a Jew. The Catalan revolt was pacified in 1472, but John carried on a war, in which he was generally unfortunate, with his neighbour the French king till his death in 1479. He was succeeded by Ferdinand, his son by his second marriage, who was already associated with his wife Isabella as joint sovereign of Castile.

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Jo„o I, King of Portugal KG (pron. IPA /?u'?~u/), in English, John I (the Good or sometimes, the Great or even the One of Good Memory) (Lisbon, April 11, 1357 ? August 14, 1433 in Lisbon) was the 10th king of Portugal and Algarve and the first to use the title Lord of Ceuta. He was the natural son of Pedro I by a noble Galician lady called Teresa LourenÁo. In 1364 he was created grand-master of the Order of Aviz. He became king of Portugal and Algarve in 1385, after the 1383?1385 Crisis.

On the death of his lawful brother Fernando in October 1383, without a male heir, strenuous efforts were made to secure the succession for princess Beatrice, his only daughter. As heiress-apparent Beatrice had been married to king John I of Castile, but the popular voice declared against an arrangement by which Portugal would virtually have become united with Castile. The 1383?1385 Crisis followed as a period of political anarchy, when no king ruled the country.

On April 6, 1385, the council of the kingdom (cortes in Portuguese) met in Coimbra and declared Jo„o, then Master of Aviz, king of Portugal. This was in effect a declaration of war against Castile and its claims to the Portuguese throne. Soon after, the king of Castile invaded Portugal, with the purpose of conquering Lisbon and removing Jo„o I from the throne. Juan I was accompanied by French allied cavalry as English troops and generals took the side of Jo„o (see Hundred years war). Jo„o I then named Nuno Alvares Pereira, his loyal and talented supporter, general and protector of the Kingdom. The invasion was repelled during the Summer after the Battle of Atoleiros, but especially after the decisive battle of Aljubarrota (August 14, 1385), where the Castilian army was virtually annihilated. Juan I of Castile then retreated and the stability of Jo„o I's throne was permanently secured.

A statue of John in the PraÁa da Figueira, LisbonIn 1387, Jo„o I married Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt who had proved to be a worthy ally, consolidating the union of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance that endures to the present day.

After the death of Juan of Castile in 1390, without leaving issue by Beatrice, Jo„o I ruled in peace and pursued the economic development of the country. The only significant military action was the siege and conquest of the city of Ceuta in 1415. By this step he aimed to control navigation of the African coast. But in longer perspective, this was the first step opening the arabian world to medieval Europe, which in fact led to the age of sailing across whole world.

Contemporaneous writers describe him as a man of wit, very keen on concentrating the power on himself, but at the same time with a benevolent and kind personality. His youth education as master of a religious order made him an unusually learned king in the Middle Ages. His love for knowledge and culture was passed to his sons: Duarte, the future king, was a poet and a writer, Pedro, the duke of Coimbra, was one of the most learned princes of his time and Prince Henry the Navigator, the duke of Viseu, started a school of navigation and invested heavily in science and development of nautical topics. In 1430, his only surviving daughter, Isabella, married Philip III, Duke of Burgundy and enjoyed an extremely refined court in his lands; she was the mother of Charles the Bold.

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Pedro I, King of Portugal (pron. IPA ['ped?u]; April 8, 1320 ? January 18, 1367) was the eighth king of Portugal and Algarve (in English, Peter I), (not to be confused with Pedro of Castile, also known as Pedro the Cruel) known as the Just (Port. o Justiceiro). He was the third but only surviving son of Afonso IV of Portugal and his wife, princess Beatrice of Castile. Pedro I succeeded his father in 1357.

Afonso IV married his daughter Maria to Alfonso XI of Castile, but quickly learned that she was being mistreated by her husband. Alfonso's cousin, Juan Manuel, had also been rebuffed by the king when his daughter Constanza was rejected in favor of the Portuguese princess. Feeling as though his daughter was being dishonored, Afonso was glad to enter into an alliance with Juan Manuel and married Pedro to Constanza. When Constanza arrived in Portugal, InÍs de Castro, the daughter of a Castilian landed aristocrat accompanied her as her lady-in-waiting. Pedro fell in love with InÍs very quickly and the two conducted an affair until Constanza's death in 1345. The scandal of this affair caused Afonso to banish InÍs from court, but this did not end the relationship since the two began living together in secret. According to the chronicle of Fern„o Lopes, this period was when Pedro began giving InÍs' brothers important positions at court. This behavior alarmed Afonso and made him believe that upon his death the Portuguese throne would fall to Castilians. This is the official motive behind Afonso's next actions: he sent three men to find InÍs and murder her in 1355. Pedro's rage at the murder of his love is what supposedly sparked his desire to revolt against his father. This revolt lasted from 1355 until 1356 when Afonso defeated his son. One year later, in 1357, Afonso died and Pedro succeeded the throne.

Fern„o Lopes labels Pedro as "the Just" and said that Pedro loved justice, especially the dispensing of it, something which he enjoyed doing himself. InÍs' assassins were the recipients of his harshest punishment. The three had escaped to Castile, but Pedro arranged for them to be exchanged with Castilian fugitives residing in Portugal with his nephew, the Castilian Pedro I. One man escaped, but the other two were brought to justice, and Lopes said that Pedro ripped their hearts out with his own bare hands. There is a possibility that Pedro of Portugal has been confused with Pedro I of Castile: they are both Pedro I, they both lived at the same time, the two were closely related, and are both credited with committing violent acts towards their subjects. Despite his gruesome legacy, Pedro of Portugal did lead a peacful reign and managed to install a system of justice which was relatively fair for the times. He attempted this with his Benepl·cito RÈgio in 1361, which forbade any Papal Bulls to be published without his prior consent. This was a result of the number of fake papal documents that had been entering the country. He also began the "nationalization" of the military orders by placing his youngest son Jo„o (the illegitinate son born after the death of InÍs) as the Master of the Order of Avis. He did attempt to claim that he and InÍs had been married and therefore their four children were legitimate, but nothing ever came of this, and InÍs' children went to live in Castile.

Legend holds that Pedro later had InÍs' body exhumed and placed on a throne, dressed in rich robes and jewels, and required all of his vassals to kiss the hand of the deceased "queen". This has never been proven, but what is known is that Pedro did have InÍs' body exhumed from her resting place in Coimbra and taken to AlcobaÁa where her body was laid to rest in the monastery. Pedro had two tombs commissioned for the monastery, one for each of them. The tombs still exist today; they are images of Pedro and InÍs facing each other, and inscribed on the marble is "AtÈ o fim do mundo..." or "Until the end of the world..."

Pedro was also the father of Fernando I and Jo„o I. Jo„o was the Master of the military order of Avis, and he would become the founder of the Avis dynasty in 1385 after defeating an attempt by Juan I to usurp the Portuguese throne.

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Peter IV of Aragon (September 1319 - 5 January 1387), king of Aragon (1336-1387), the Ceremonious or el del punyalet (the one of the little dagger ). He deposed James III of Majorca and rejoined the Balearic Islands and Roussillon under the crown of Aragon. He wrote the Chronicle of his name.

He found himself facing a rebellion among the nobles which would fail after he defeated the nobles in the Battle of Epila in 1348.

In 1356, he engaged with Peter I of Castile in what was called the "War of the Two Peters". It ended in 1375 with the Treaty of Almaz·n, without a winner due to the Black Death and several natural disasters.

Throughout his reign, Peter IV had frequent conflicts with the inquisitor general of Aragon, Nicolau Aymerich.

During his reign, the Generalitat was instituted in the Courts of 1358-1359.

He conquered Sicily in 1377 but the posession was given to his son Martin.

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Philip the Handsome (July 22, 1478 ? September 25, 1506), (Felipe el Hermoso - Philipp der Schˆne - Philippe le Beau) was the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Through his mother Mary of Burgundy he inherited the greater part of the Burgundian state and through his wife Joanna the Mad he briefly succeeded to the kingdom of Castile. He was the first Habsburg ruler in Spain and his successors reckoned him as Philip I of Spain.
Philip was born in Bruges, then in the County of Flanders (today in Belgium). And was named after his grandfather, Philip the Good. In 1482, upon the death of his mother Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, he succeeded to her Burgundian possessions under the guardianship of his father. A period of turmoil ensued which witnessed sporadic hostilities between, principally, the large towns of Flanders (especially Ghent and Bruges) and the supporters of Maximilian. During this interregnum, the young Philip became caught up in events and was even briefly sequestered in Bruges as part of the larger Flemish campaign to support their claims of greater autonomy, which they had wrested from Mary of Burgundy in an agreement known as the Blijde Inkomst or Joyous Entry of 1477. By the early 1490s, the turmoil of the interregnum gave way to an uneasy stand-off, with neither French support for the cities of the Franc (Flanders), nor Imperial support from Maximilian's father Frederick III proving decisive. Both sides came to terms in the Peace of Senlis in 1493, which smoothed over the internal power struggle by agreeing to make the 15-year old Philip prince in the following year.

[edit] The Burgundian Inheritance and the Spanish Alliance
In 1494 Maximilian relinquished his regency under the terms of the Treaty of Senlis and Philip, at the age of 16, took over the rule of the Burgundian lands himself, although in practice authority was derived from a council of Burgundian notables. On October 20, 1496, he married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, in Lier, Belgium.

The marriage was one of a set of family alliances between Habsburgs and Trast·mara, designed to strengthen both the against growing French power, which had increased significantly thanks to the policies of Louis XI and the successful assertion of regal power after war with the League of the Public Weal. The matter became more urgent after Charles VIII's invasion of Italy (known as the First Peninsular War).

Philip's sister Margaret married Juan, Prince of Asturias, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella and successor to the unified crowns of Castile and Aragon. [1] The double alliance was never intended to let the Spanish kingdoms fall under Habsburg control. At the time of her marriage to Philip, Juana was third in line to the throne, with both Juan and his elder sister Isabella married and hopeful of progeny.

[edit] The Castilian Inheritance
In 1500, shortly after the birth of Juana and Philip's second child (the future Charles V), the succession to the Castilian and Aragonese crowns was thrown into turmoil. The heir presumptive, Juan, had died in 1497 very shortly after his marriage to Margaret of Austria. The succession thereby passed to Isabella, who had married Manuel I of Portugal. She died in 1498, while giving birth to a son, Miguel, to whom succession to the united crowns of Castile, Aragon and Portugal now fell; however, the infant was sickly, and he died during the summer of 1500. The succession to the Castilian and Aragonese crowns now fell to Juana. Because Ferdinand could conceivably produce another heir, the Cortes of Aragon refused to recognise Juana and Philip as the heirs presumptive to the Kingdom of Aragon. In Castile, however, the succession was clear. Moreover, there was no salic tradition which the Castilian Cortes could use to thwart the succession passing to Juana. At this point, the issue of Juana's mental incompetence moved from courtly annoyance to the centre of the political stage, since it was clear that Philip and his Burgundian entourage would be the real power-holders in Castile.

In 1502, Philip, Juana and a large part of the Burgundian court travelled to Spain to receive fealty from the Cortes of Castile as king-consort of Juana, a journey chronicled in intense detail by Antoon van Lalaing (Antoine de Lalaing in French), the future Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland. Philip and the majority of the court returned to the Low Countries in the following year, leaving a pregnant Juana behind in Spain, where she gave birth to Ferdinand, later Holy Roman Emperor. Philip's life with Joanna was rendered extremely unhappy by his infidelity and by her jealousy, which, working on a neurotic temperament, furthered her insanity. The princess gave way to paroxysms of rage, in which she was guilty of acts of atrocious violence. Before her mother's death, in 1504, she was unquestionably quite insane, and husband and wife lived apart.

[edit] Struggle for Power in Spain
When Isabella died, Ferdinand endeavoured to lay hands on the regency of Castile, but the nobles, who disliked and feared him, forced him to withdraw. Philip was summoned to Spain, where he was recognized as king. He landed, with his wife, at La CoruÒa on April 28, 1506, accompanied by a body of German mercenaries. Father and son-in-law mediated under Cardinal Cisneros at Remesal, near Puebla de Sanabria, and at Renedo, the only result of which was an indecent family quarrel, in which Ferdinand professed to defend the interests of his daughter, who he said was imprisoned by her husband.

A civil war would probably have broken out between them; but Philip, who had only been in Spain long enough to prove his incapacity, died suddenly at Burgos, apparently of typhoid fever, on September 25, 1506. His wife refused for long to allow his body to be buried or to part from it.

Wikipedia: Henry was born in the Royal Ch‚teau at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, the son of Francis I and Claude de France and the grandson of Louis XII of France and Anne de Bretagne. With his brother, he spent three years in Spain as a hostage to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as surety for his father, who had been captured at the Battle of Pavia. Henry married Catherine de Medici (13 April 1519?January 5, 1589) on 28 October 1533, when both were fourteen years old.

The following year he became involved with the thirty-five-year-old, recently widowed, Diane de Poitiers, who became his most trusted confidante and for the next twenty-five years wielded considerable influence behind the scenes, even signing royal documents. Extremely confident, mature and intelligent, she left Catherine powerless to intervene.

When his older brother Francis died in 1536 after a game of tennis, Henry became heir to the throne; he succeeded his father on March 31, 1547 and was crowned King of France on July 25, 1547 at Reims.

Henry's reign was marked by wars with Austria, and the persecution of the Protestant Huguenots. Henry II severely punished them, burning them alive or cutting out their tongues for speaking their Protestant beliefs. Even those suspected of being Huguenots could be imprisoned for life.

The Italian War of 1551?1559, sometimes known as the Habsburg-Valois War, began when Henry declared war against Charles V with the intent of recapturing Italy and ensuring French, rather than Habsburg, domination of European affairs. An early offensive into Lorraine was successful, with Henry capturing the three episcopal cities of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, but the attempted French invasion of Tuscany in 1553 was defeated at the Battle of Marciano.

After Charles's abdication in 1556 split the Habsburg empire between Phillip II of Spain and Ferdinand I, the focus of the war shifted to Flanders, where Phillip, in conjunction with Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, defeated the French at St. Quentin. England's entry into the war later that year led to the French capture of Calais, and French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries; but Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-CambrÈsis, in which he renounced any further claims to Italy.

The Peace of Cateau-CambrÈsis was signed between Elizabeth I of England and Henry on April 2 and between Henry and Philip II of Spain on April 3, 1559, at Le Cateau-CambrÈsis, around twenty kilometers south-east of Cambrai. Under its terms, France restored Piedmont and Savoy to the Duke of Savoy, but retained Saluzzo, Calais and the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Spain retained Franche-ComtÈ. Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, married Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry, the sister of Henry II, and Philip II of Spain married Henry's daughter Elisabeth.

Henry raised the young Queen Mary I of Scotland at his court, hoping to use her as a tool of Valois imperialism. On April 24, 1558, Henry's fourteen-year-old son Francis was married to Mary in a union intended to give the future king of France not only the throne of Scotland but a claim to the throne of England. Henry had Mary sign secret documents, illegal in Scottish law, that would ensure Valois rule in Scotland even if she died without heir (Guy 2004:91). Mary's claim to the English throne quickly became current when Mary I of England died later in 1558, Henry and his Catholic advisors regarding Elizabeth Tudor as illegitimate.
Henry II was an avid hunter and participant in jousts and tournaments. On June 30, 1559, at the Place des Vosges in Paris, during a match to celebrate the Peace Treaty of Cateau-CambrÈsis with his longtime enemies, the Habsburgs of Austria and to celebrate the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth of Valois to King Philip II of Spain, King Henry was mortally wounded by a sliver from the shattered lance of Gabriel Montgomery, captain of the King's Scottish Guard. It penetrated the closed visor, pierced his left eye, penetrated the brain and came out via his ear. He suffered terribly, and, despite the efforts of royal surgeon Ambroise ParÈ, died on July 10, 1559 and was buried in a cadaver tomb in Saint Denis Basilica. Prior to his death, Queen Catherine limited access to his bedside and denied his mistress (Diane de Poitiers) access to him, even though he repeatedly asked for her. Following his death, Catherine sent de Poitiers into exile, where she was to live in comfort on her own properties until her death.

Nostradamus supposedly predicted Henry's death.

Henry was succeeded by his son, Francis II, who died the following year and was succeeded by his two brothers. Their mother acted as Regent. For the forty years following Henry II's death, France was filled with turbulence as Protestants and Catholics fought the bitter Wars of Religion

Wikipedia: JONATHAN SAYRE SLAUSON (1829 - 1905) was a land developer who founded the town of Azusa, California in 1887. He was elected to the Los Angeles Board of Education on December 5, 1904 for a two year term. However, Slauson resigned on September 23, 1905. His resignation was acdepted a week later when Wilson Campbell Patterson was appointed as his successor. Slauson died shortly thereafter.

Slauson Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, is named after him.

Wilford was an active member of Saints Peter and Luke Episcopal Church. At church, he was "a bearer" for over thirty years. He retired from his fulltime job as a barber in 1995 due to declining health. Wilford learned "building trades" skills from his father,Arthur. Wilford developed into a highly skilled builder. Among the buildings and projects he created, was his own home. He was employed as a barber. "Ted" enjoyed "the art of lively conversation" as he worked.

One of "Ted's" hobbies was the collection of the antique time pieces that filled his home. At the "top of the hour", chimes and a multitude of noises went off to mark the hour. Being a patient and detail oriented person, Wilford acquired clock making skills and patiently put them into practice in making and rebuilding clocks. Additionally, he is remembered for teaching clock making to male relatives. He lived on "Coon's Lake", enjoying the peace and the timely ringing of the bells, chimes, and the sounds of his beloved clocks.

Affectionately referred to as "Ted", he was known for his "speaking the truth in love". He was not afraid to express his beliefs, being honest and outspoken in communications. Wilford is remembered for being a man of speaking his mind. He was also a kind, friendly, and generous man.

Will dated Sep 14 1672, Inventory Nov. 13 1672, he died between those dates.

He came from the Parish of Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, England, arriving probably in 1630 (Savage surmises in the "Mary and John"); was a proprietor at Dorchester, Mass., 1638; removed to Milford, Conn., was one of the original settlers there in 1639, but soon went to New Haven, thence returning to Milford. He became one of the most important men of the colony. He was Deputy from Milford to the General Assembly of the New Haven colony, 1653 and 1654; Magistrate for Milford, 9 years from 1654 to 2663; Assistant, 1665-1672; Commissioner of United Colonies of New England for the New Haven Colony with Gov. Leete, in 1661/2 and 3.

he left a large property both in this country and England, valued at 600 pounds rents. (Savage) The English estate was left to his son Samuel. This consisted of lands within the parishes of Cheddington, Marsworth, Irvinghoe and Wing in Buckinghamshire, which fell to him by the will of Agnes Sears of that Parish and Shire. He also left Samuel his lands and residence in Milford. To James, he left his house and lands in New Haven, and the land which had been given to him by the Legislature. Hinman is probably wrong in saying that he was dismissed from the church at Milford to Boston Church, February, 1669, for in the records of New Haven Colony, he is uniformly spiken of as from Milford, and in his will, he is also called of Milford.

Will dated Sept 9, 1689; inventory of estate taken Nov 6, 1689; died between these dates.

He was representative to the General Assembly from May, 1672, to October, 1678, inclusive, excepting the May session of 1677 and was Assistant from May, 179 to May, 1689, inclusive. In October, 1678, was chosen with Wm. Pitkin as Commissioner of the United Colonies, He was distinguished in the militia and was with the Governor; was one of the standing council for military affairs during King Philip's War. He was one of the most prosperous and influential citizens of Farmington. In 1669, of the eighty-four taxable estates, his was third with a valuation of 183 pounds. He was present at the session when the Charter was abstracted. In May, 1678, he was appointed Commissioner for Farmington by the General Court. In 1683, he acted with John, son of Mathew Allyn, in presenting the claims of Connecticut to the jurisdiction of the Narragansett Lands, to "His Majesty's commissioners in Narragansett." Col. rec. of Conn, 3, pp. 324-5.

In the name of god amen be it knowe to all men that I Thomas WElles of Evesham weaver doe make my last will and testament the ninth day of February 1637 the aner and forme as foloweth
first I beequeth my soule unto the hands of my lord and saviour Jesus Christ whoo had Redemed it next I bequeth my body to the earth and all my worldly goods In maner and forme following
first I forgive my father the 5 pownd which he oweth to me and I give to my father 6 pownd more to be paid in three yere by equell somes fourty shillings a yeare but if he dy the mony that is unpaid to remain to the Exseckiter.
Next I give to my eldest son Thomas 20 pownd to be paid at the age of 21 yeares and my house after the death of his mother Item I give to my daughter Mary 30 pownd likwise to my son John 30 more but if my wife be with child and it live then it is my will that 10 pownd a pece shall be taken from John and Mary and given to it and it is my will that my son John shall be paid at the age of 21 yeare and my daughter Mary at hur day of mariage or at the age of 21 yeares: but if they prove stouborne and dissobedent then it shall be left to the will of thir mother and the overseers when they shall have it: and further it is my will that if my son Thomas dy without a aire then it is my will that it shall come to my son John and if John dy without a a ire then to com to the other son if it be a son or elce to remaine to the Daughter if ther are two or elce to remaine to my daughter Mary.
Item I give to my man CHARLES WHITELL a shipe & Hoge worth eight shillings or two hachibs which he nowe doth work with upon his good behaviour to his dame.
Item I give to my godsons JOSEPH BLISSORD and JOHN WELLES 2 shillings a pece
Item I give to JOHN PATHIT 2 shillings. Item I give to ANN ALBRIGHT and JONE the daughters of JOHN ALLBRIGHT 2 shillings a peece.
Item I give to JOHN ALLBIRGHT and CATHERIN the sonne and daughter of RICHARD ALLBRIGHT 2 shillings a peece.
Item I give to JOHN LOE and SARA LOE the son and daughter of GRIFFEN LOE 2 shillings apeece.
Item I give to SARA ORDWAY 2 shillings.
Item I give to my brother JOHN ALLBRIGHT my cloake.
Item I give to my brother RICHARD ALLBRIGHT my best coate.
Item I give to the pore 5 shillings to be geven to whome my wif and EDWARD ORDWAY and WILLIAM LAMPIT think good and I make my wife my whole exseckiter and my brother JOHN ALBRIGHT and my brother RICHARD ALBRIGHT ovorseres.

The will was not signed. However it was witness by THOMAS HANDY (mark TH), WILLIAM LAMPIT, and EDWARD ORDWAY.

Will:
Richard Williams "aged about Eighty being in Competent health", made his will May 5, 1686. To my eldest son Samuell my two lots which I purchased of Timothy Holloway, now in possession of said son Samuell, also the rights to future divisions of lands belonging to that lot formerly in the occupation of Anthony Slokam. To my son Nathaniell the land, house and barn which now he possesseth being part of the lot which I boutht of Henry Uxley containing half an acre, with rights to future divisions thereto belonging, also seven acres lying between the great lots of Nicholas White and Hezekiah Hoare, also sixteen acres which I had for my great lot bounded on the west by Walter Deans land, also three acres of swamp at pale Brook, one half my meadow at little worth and three acres of land alowed me by the town in satisfaction for a highway through said seven acres. To my son Joseph the land, house and barn now in his possession, and rights to future divisions belonging to the lot heretofore of John Gingell now in the possession of my son Samuell, also eight acres on the south side of the great river by the land of mr John Pooll, also two acres of salt marsh at Assonaat between the land of Leiften George Macey and the next Creek westerly. To my son Thomas the westerly part of my dwelling house with six acres of land being the westerly part of the lot on which said part of my dwelling house stands, also one half my division of land at "Weefquobonoonfuk" with one half my meadow adjoining thereto and one quarter of meadow at Littleworth, also one half my fifty acres "about Stonie ware on the great River", also my twenty two acre division on the Three mile river, he to keep one cow for his mother during her pleasure. To my son Benjamin my share of land in the North purchase, the other half of my division of lands at "Weefquobonoonfuk", the other half of my said meadow thereto adjoining the other half my fifty acres at "Stonnie ware", one quareter my meadow at Littleworth, also my Tan yard with the stock thereof, and after my wifes decease the easterly part of my dwelling house and the remainder of the house lot not disposed of to said Thomas, also one bed with its furniture, he to pay my wife annually four pounds in money and keep one cow for her during pleasure. To my daughter Elizabeth sixty acres at "goofbery" meadow with two acres of meadow I bought of James Philips. To my daughter Hannah my whole share of land in the South purchase. To my two sons Thomas and Benjamin my pasture with my barn thereon to be equally divided between them. To "my beloved wife frauncis" during her life, the easterly part of my dwelling house with the garden, lands at Assonat & meadow not disposed of, with fifteen pounds annually and the keeping of two cows during pleasure, also I give her two cows and all household goods forever.
If my wife's necessity require it, the land at Assonate and share in the Iron works shall be sold for her supply, if not, I give it after her decease to sons, Samuell, Nathanell, Joseph, Thomas and Benjamin. The above sons to be joint executors and to pay annually to my wife during her life eleven pounds besides the four pounds before assigned to be paid by son Benjamin. "I alfo will them to tack Care of her their laid mother in all things Neceffary for her Comfort to their abillitie". I make null and void all former wills made by me. Witnessed by James Walker, Thomas Leonard and James X Leonard Junr. October 10, 1693, Capt. Thomas Leonard and James Leonard both of Taunton made oath before Jn Saffin Prob. John Cary Regis. athat they saw Richard Williams late of Taunton dec'd sign said will and saw James Walker late of Taunton sign as a witness. Entered by John Cary Regt October 11, 1694.

William Alvord, an importer of foreign woods, a manufacturer of furniture, and a dealer therein at wholesale, son of William and Lucy (Clayborn) Alvord, of Rutland, Vt., where he was born 25 Feb 1801. He dwelt in Albany from 1825 till his death, which took place 17 Dec 1837, at Savannah, Ga., where he was buried. She died in 1870, at the house of her son William, in San Francisco, California.